Girl Talk
by Yanagi Uxinta
Summary: Rashel and Daphne catch up in a quiet moment.


Just a little story that started as a drabble and took on a life of its own. Possible spoilers for Strange Fate/information on Lisa's website.

* * *

Rashel was unlacing her boots when she felt the tug on her hair. Only light, for attention, not to hurt. She turned to look over her shoulder as Daphne gave a wistful sigh.

'You've got such long hair. Lucky,' the blonde said. She was sitting on the bed, papers scattered over the large mattress around her. They both had paperwork to catch up on – Rashel's for the combat unit, Daphne some admin work. They'd decided to catch up on each other while they worked. It had been a few weeks since they'd had a proper conversation, what with the Childs' family arrival and all. Daphne and her whole family had come up from Boston after Harmony was completed. The family had been told this was some sort of elaborate witness protection after Daphne's kidnapping a few months ago. That had been until they'd reached the town, of course. Then they'd had the induction with several other humans, where the whole 'Night World' bombshell was dropped.

To their credit, Daphne's siblings had taken it in stride. When Rashel and Quinn had dropped by to help unpack, one of Daphne's sisters had tugged on Quinn's sleeve, bold as brass, and demanded to see his teeth. Then tried to poke them when he knelt down and complied. Daphne had dragged her away before she could, but it had left Quinn chuckling once he recovered from the shock of a nine year old trying to prod his fangs. Daphne's parents were still acclimatising to the whole thing, but having more time to themselves with the young kids in the crèche and the older ones in school seemed to be helping. Not just them, actually. Daphne had spent more time with her parents in the weeks she'd been in Harmony than she had in the months before her abduction. 'Maybe this whole impending-end-of-the-world thing isn't so bad,' had been her exact words, if Rashel recalled correctly.

Rashel kicked off her boots and turned to face Daphne properly, folding her legs underneath her and starting to spread out her own work. 'I should cut it, really. It can be a disadvantage in a fight, but...' She twisted a strand between her fingers, thinking. 'I got it from my Mom, and she always had hers long. It's just a little reminder of her I always have with me.' Then she gave a little smirk. 'Plus it looks nice.'

Daphne laughed. 'Yeah, that too. Bet you can do loads with it.' She fluffs her own hair. 'Trying to do anything with this is hopeless.'

Rashel shrugged. 'I guess? Never tried.'

Daphne went still, a face of thunder forming. 'Rashel Jordan, are you honestly telling me you are wasting that head of hair? You just leave it down? Seriously?'

Rashel stared, nonplussed. 'Yes...? I mean I braid it back in sparring...'

Daphne mouthed at her, staring in disbelief. 'But what about when you go out?'

'Go out where?'

Daphne waved her hands vaguely, shaking her head. 'I dunno, _out_. Shopping, with your boyfriend, stuff like that.'

Rashel laughed. 'Boyfriend? We are talking about the same vampire, right?'

Daphne groaned in aggravation. 'Come on, Quinn can't have been your first boyfriend.'

Rashel stared at her until the penny dropped, and Daphne gawped at her.

'Wait, really? He is seriously the first guy you went out with?' When Rashel smirked, Daphne sat back and whistled. 'You sure know how to pick them.'

Rashel chuckled, nodding. 'Can't argue with the soulmate principle. Trust me, we tried.'

'I saw.' Daphne mimed staking something, bringing to mind the fight on the island's beach. 'But a boyfriend was really never on your to-do list?'

Rashel quirked an eyebrow, fighting hard not to laugh as Daphne froze, realising how that could sound.

'Well, maybe now it is, fiancée and all,' the blonde said as she recovered, and Rashel smacked her with a sheaf of papers, spluttering laughter and trying not to flush. 'But _getting_ a boyfriend was never on your to-do list?'

'No, never,' Rashel said firmly, still trying to stop the blood from rushing to her face. Daphne's smug expression made her think that she was failing miserably. She tried to drag the conversation back on topic before Daphne could embarrass her further. 'So I never had anyone I wanted to dress up or look nice for. The first time I even wore heels was at The Crypt.'

'I remember.' Daphne sighed. 'You're hopeless. What about Prom, or parties?'

Rashel snorted. 'I didn't _go_ to Prom. I was out staking vampires while the rest of the school was dancing and trying to spike the punch bowl. Didn't get invited to many parties either, and they were always during my work hours anyway.'

'She says like vampire hunting is a nine-to-five job,' Daphne muttered under her breath.

'More like nine-to-one in the morning. I did take time to sleep too you know.'

'You astound me,' Daphne said, deadpan. The blonde girl was spending far too much time around her, Rashel thought. She was picking up her sarcasm. 'So you have never done anything fancy with your hair, to show it off? At all?'

Rashel thought back. 'Does a ponytail count?'

She could see that wasn't what Daphne wanted to hear. Harmony's newest secretary was shaking her head, hands on her hips. 'Do you know how many people would kill for hair like yours?' She demanded.

She didn't mean to say it. It just slipped out. 'Someone did try to scalp me once.'

Silence.

Then, without breaking the quiet, _did I hear that right?_

Quinn, wherever he was. Ash had appeared earlier that morning and dragged him off somewhere, citing 'stag night stuff' and vanishing.

 _Don't worry, they're dead._

 _Good, but who are you talking to?_ She can feel the bemusement at how scalping even came up.

 _Daphne. We're talking about hair. I'm wasting mine, apparently._

There was a long pause while he processed that.

 _You're talking about hair. You. And then you mention_ scalping _?_

 _Hey, this small talk, normal teenager stuff is hard. Not much practice, remember?_

She could feel his laughter. Nothing physical, just the light, bubbling feeling that came with it.

 _True. I'll let you practice some more, shall I?_

 _Please. I think Daphne's getting over the surprise._

She left him chuckling and focused on her friend, giving her an uncertain smile when Daphne folded her arms. She realised Daphne had been waiting for her to finish.

'What did you tell him?'

'That I suck at girl talk,' Rashel said, more apology than truth.

Daphne sniffed. 'Yes, well, we'll just have to fix that too.'

What? 'Uh... 'too'?'

Daphne waved at her, lips pinched. 'Your sadly lacking repertoire of hair styles. Ooh!' It was more a gasp than a sound, and Daphne rapidly spun her hand in a circle. 'We can start now. Turn.'

'The paper work-' Rashel protested.

'Can wait another hour or so. No one's missing it. Now turn.' Drill Sergeant Daphne was back. Rashel sighed and twisted, presenting her back to the shorter girl. She soon felt hands plucking and gently pulling, holding and twisting.

That was how Quinn found them, two hours and one trip for hair ties, bobby pins and a camera later. Rashel had ended up lying flat on her stomach doing her paperwork while Daphne leaned over her back, braiding and pinning her hair into various different styles and photographing each of them.

She looked up as her soulmate paused in the doorway, staring.

'Hey Angel,' Daphne said without looking up. She'd had to explain that one to Rashel, another Buffy reference apparently. The blonde girl still wasn't entirely comfortable with Quinn, but she was civil enough with him when they were in the same room. Quinn gave her what space he could and generally kept the whole vampire thing as subtle as possible. They'd become pretty good at working around each other's politeness.

'Hi.' He quirked an eyebrow at Rashel's head in question.

'Daphne made me,' she explained, grinning when his eyes kept drifting to her hair. 'I think there's going to be enforced hair styling lessons in my near future.'

'You bet your bokken there are,' Daphne said, sitting back in satisfaction and reaching for the camera again. She'd finally stopped calling it her 'samurai sword' or 'super-stake' when she was being funny.

Rashel rolled her eyes but smiled fondly as the flash went off behind her head. She found she didn't mind the touch of normality Daphne brought to her life, even more so now that she wasn't running round staking vampires every night.

'Right, here you go.' Daphne flopped down beside Rashel, crumpling several of her forgotten papers and stretching her arms out so they could both see the camera. She glanced up at Quinn and tilted her head to the left, to let him know he could come over too. He skirted around the edge of the bed to sit on Rashel's other side, leaning in to look at the small screen.

As Daphne flicked through the photos, Rashel making the appropriate interested noises, her attention drifted left to Quinn. She could feel amusement from him, and something else. Deeper. More serious.

She nudged his mind with hers. Not demanding, just questioning. An offer to listen. He opened up, as he always did, and she immersed herself in the contact and the detail.

How long it had been, since he had felt so... normal. Domestic, even. Even since meeting Rashel, it had been fighting and subterfuge and chaos. Then when they'd finally stopped threatening to kill each other, it had been the road to recovery. Helping the girls who had escaped, then finding Circle Daybreak. Setting up the combat unit, then their various assignments. Then this. Harmony. The Apocalypse on its way.

The last time he'd felt this kind of domestic... peace, in a way, was in the 1600s. All from looking at a few photos.

 _I need to get out more,_ he thought, amusement spiking.

Rashel's lips twitched and she glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye, half her attention still on Daphne. _I'm saying nothing. Mostly because I'd be a hypocrite if I did._

'If you two lovebirds are _quite_ done,' Daphne said, leaning sideways to bump Rashel's shoulder. 'You might want to look through these and pick which one you want for the big day.'

That got their attention.

'The big... that's why you were doing this?' Rashel asked, slowly taking the proffered camera in a daze.

Daphne smiled. 'No, but occurred to me part way through. Let's face it, if it were up to you two you'd both show up in normal clothes or ninja gear and covered in blood from your latest assignment. Someone's got to make sure you look more than just presentable, and as your bridesmaid that's my job.'

Quinn chuckled while Rashel looked down at the camera, smiling softly and wrestling with the surge of affection and gratitude she had towards her friend. 'Thanks, Daphne. It means a lot.'

'You're welcome,' she said, squeezing Rashel's forearm. Then she looked up at Quinn. 'And I don't know why you're laughing. Ash made you an appointment to get your suit measured weeks ago. It's tomorrow, by the way. He'll probably turn up to drag you to it.'

That shut him up pretty fast. It was Rashel's turn to look at him and snicker. Ash had been throwing himself into every project in Harmony it seemed – partly to do some good things to balance out the bad in his life, partly to distract himself from worrying about Mary-Lynette. He'd now latched onto Quinn and Rashel's upcoming wedding like a well-meaning bulldog and had become their unofficial wedding planner, having the staff running in circles getting the preparations ready. Even for the small, low-key ceremony – there weren't many resources left over for frivolities with a war on, after all – there was a surprising amount to do.

Rashel got the feeling it was also because it gave him prime time with Quinn so he could needle him mercilessly. Tomorrow Quinn would have to stand still for a long time and Ash could take pot shots for as long as he liked, shielded by whichever unlucky tailor had been roped into this madness. She didn't think he'd quite forgiven Quinn for getting off so easy on the soulmate front when Quinn had undoubtedly done far worse things for a lot longer.

'I'm sure I can find the tailor by myself. I don't need an escort,' Quinn tried to argue.

'Tell that to Ash. I heard he's quite insistent,' Daphne chimed in, far too chirpily for Quinn's liking.

'Of course he is,' Quinn muttered. Rashel patted his knee consolingly.

'At least you've got some warning now. Otherwise tomorrow he probably would have woken you up by hammering on the door and dragging you out of it before you could argue,' she reasoned.

'True.' Then his lips twitched. 'Unless I beat him to the tailors. You wouldn't mind passing on the message when he turns up looking for me, would you?' He asked.

Rashel grinned. 'Not at all.'

Daphne tutted in mock disapproval. 'You're both cruel.'

'You've not lived with Ash,' they replied in unison. After several months of living in close proximity to the Redfern vampire, even Rashel had learned that Ash did occasionally deserve the odd prank.

Quinn rose smoothly to his feet, smiling. 'In that case, I have a tailor to find. I'll see you later,' he said, quickly stooping to kiss Rashel goodbye. It took her by surprise, and left her stumbling over her reply and laughing as he vanished out the door.

Daphne snorted at her friend's tied tongue. 'Does he usually do that?'

'Ah... no,' Rashel admitted with a grin. 'Probably why he did it, actually. Turns out he has a sense of humour.'

Daphne shook her head. 'Figures. Didn't get to see much of it in the Crypt, thanks to the general atmosphere. Though I suppose it's a good job he's being romantic, with the whole getting married thing and all.' She tweaked a strand of Rashel's hair back into position looking thoughtful. 'I may not know why you're marrying him – well, no, I totally do,' she said, reflecting quickly.

Rashel raised an eyebrow. 'Lawrence Welk reruns, if I remember right.'

Daphne blushed and smacked her arm. 'What I'm _trying_ to say,' she continued in a put-upon manner, 'is that even though I don't know why a vampire hunter is marrying a vampire, beyond weird mystical stuff, I'm glad you're happy. And that you found someone you trust to have your back, no matter what kind of danger you get yourself into.'

Rashel smiled and squeezed her friend's hand. 'Thank you. But you know what?'

Daphne shook her head, curious.

'You were the first person I trusted to have my back in danger, and you did. Is Quinn the one I'm going to be with for the rest of my life? Yes, and I hope it's a good long time. But you were the first friend I had, and the person who taught me I _could_ rely on other people. So thank you for that, Daphne.'

The blonde girl was blinking back tears. 'I know you're not touchy-feely, but I'm going to hug you now.'

That was all the warning Rashel got before Daphne dove on her. Chuckling, she lifted an arm to hug her back, grinning into Daphne's shoulder despite the crick threatening her neck.

'Does this mean I'm improving at this girl talk thing?' She asked, voice muffled against fluffy hair.

Laughing and brushing her cheeks, Daphne sat back. 'Just a bit. Now there's just your hair to work on. When we're done, you'll make Quinn's jaw drop.'


End file.
